Uncover your potential

Only a minute percentage of the five billion people on this planet will experience a significant portion of
their true potential. Are you a candidate for contributing to the wealth of the cemetery? Ask yourself the
following questions: Who am I? Why am I here?
How much potential do I have? What am I capable of doing? By what criteria should I measure my
ability? Who sets the standards? By what process can I maximize my ability? What are my limitations?
Within the answers to these questions lies the key to a fulfilled, effective life.
One of the greatest tragedies in life is to watch potential die untapped
Consider the life of Abraham Lincoln. His story is one of the most dramatic examples of a man struggling
to release the wealth of potential locked up inside him:
He lost his job in 1832.
He was elected to the legislature in 1834.
He suffered the death of his sweetheart in 1834.
He suffered a nervous breakdown in 1836.
He was defeated for speaker of the State Legislature in 1838.
He was defeated for nomination for Congress in 1843.
He was elected to Congress in 1846. He was rejected for the position of land officer in 1849. He was
defeated for the Senate in 1854.
He was defeated for the nomination for vice president of the United States in 1856.
He again was defeated for the Senate in 1858.
He was elected president of the United States in 1860.
Everything in life was created with potential and possesses the potential principle
Everything in Life Has Potential
You must understand the tremendous potential you possess and commit yourself to maximizing it in your
short lifetime. What is potential, anyway? Potential Defined
Potential is:
Dormant ability
Reserved power
Untapped strength
Unused success
Hidden talents
Capped capability
All you can be but have not yet become
All you can do but have not yet done
How far you can reach but have not yet reached
What you can accomplish but have not yet accomplished
Potential is unexposed ability and latent power.
One of the great enemies of your potential is success. In order to realize your full potential, you must
never be satisfied with your last accomplishment
The greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life that never realized its full potential.
Potential never has a retirement plan.
The Potential Principle
To simplify this concept, let’s look at one of the most powerful elements in nature—the seed. If I held a
seed in my hand and asked you, “What do I have in my hand?” what would you say? Perhaps you would
answer what seems to be the obvious—a seed. However, if you understand the nature of a seed, your
answer would be fact but not truth. The truth is I hold a forest in my hand. Why? Because in every seed
there is a tree, and in every tree there is fruit or flowers with seeds in them. And these seeds also have
trees that have fruit that have seeds—that have trees that have fruit that have seeds, etc. In essence, what
you see is not all there is. That is potential. Not what is, but what could be.
Your IQ doesn’t measure who you are. Your designer clothes don’t measure who you are. The size of
your home or bank account don’t measure who you are. Your friends and family’s comments don’t
measure who you are. Thinking positively and knowing you are full of positive potential is who you are
and can be—the best is yet to come!
You Are Not Ugly!
You Are Not Dumb!
You Are Not a Mistake
You Will Become!
You Can Do It!
If you can conceive it, you can do it.
UNLOCK YOUR POTENTIAL
Potential. The unexposed, untapped, hidden, dormant revelations that lay beneath the accumulated dust
and grime of many years. Potential. Strength and beauty that lay unmarred by the ravages of fire, wind,
and water. Potential. The possibilities for rebuilding after years of destruction, decay, and neglect.

The great writer Paul refers to this hidden wealth within as “treasure in jars of clay” (2 Corinthians 4:7).
The jar may not look like much, but the treasure inside it is valuable and priceless. In other words, what
people see when they look at you is not who you truly are. You can become much more than you now are.
WHAT ARE WE TO DEFEND?
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from
us (2 Corinthians 4:7).
This potency of God within us—our potential—is the treasure we must defend. The treasure is the God-
invested vision and purpose for our lives, designed both to show His glory and to bring Him glory.
1. The Treasure of God’s Wisdom and Knowledge
The prophet Isaiah recognized God’s wisdom as a treasure,
He will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the
fear of the Lord is the key to this treasure
(Isaiah 33:6). The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good
understanding…
(Psalm 111:10; see also Proverbs 1:7). My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands
within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for
insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden
treasure, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom, and from His mouth come knowledge and understanding (Proverbs 2:1-6).
2. The Treasure of God’s Power
God has also deposited His power within us.
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who
believes…” (Romans 1:16)—and he carefully portrayed this salvation as “a demonstration of the Spirit’s
power, so that [our] faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5).
3. The Treasure of the Holy Spirit
Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set His seal of
ownership on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come…
(2 Corinthians 1:21-22). Now it is God who has made us…and has given us the Spirit as a
deposit, guaranteeing what is to come (2 Corinthians 5:5).

4. THE TREASURE OF POTENTIAL

Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you—guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who
lives in us (2 Timothy 1:14).
All the great things God has put inside us—our visions, dreams, plans and talents—are satan’s
targets.